Family Fun for August
With summer winding down and kids gearing up return to school, families might be looking for some quiet fun. What’s better than a night in with board games or card games? Besides being a fun way to bring your family to the table, playing games together helps children develop important skills like problem solving, communication, and socialization. The library has board games for all ages to check out and play at home. You can check out two games per library card, and each game has a loan period of one week. 
FDL has lots of board games for children, including classics like Candyland, Trouble, Checkers, Chutes and Ladders, and Battleship. We also have a variety of family-favorite card games, including Uno, Skip-Bo Junior, Monopoly Deal, Old Maid, and Memory. We have lots of new games, too, with new titles added regularly. Try a few out and let us know which ones are your family favorites!
Some of our most popular games include:
Ticket to Ride: First Journey
Players collect cards of various types of train cars and use them to lay claim to railway routes throughout North America. The first person to claim 6 routes is the winner.
Catan Junior
Thos game takes place on a ring of tropical isles, including the mysterious Spooky Island, home of the Ghost Captain. Each island generates a specific resource: wood, goats, molasses, gold or cutlasses. Players use resources to build and expand their network of pirate lairs. The first player to control seven pirate lairs wins the game.
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game!
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game helps preschoolers master matching skills, develop fine motor skills including pre-handwriting skills, social skills like taking turns, and strategic thinking skills.
Munchkin Treasure Hunt
Explore the dungeon! Roll the die, move, fight the monster, get the most gold, and win!
Professor Noggin’s Extraordinary Women Card Game
Professor Noggin’s series of educational games encourages kids to learn interesting facts about their favorite subjects. Each of the thirty game cards combines trivia, true or false, and multiple-choice questions. A special three numbered die is included which creates interaction and promotes communication between players. Easy and hard levels keep kids interested and challenged – while of course having fun!
Monopoly Deal
The purpose is to assemble property sets, charge rent, swap cards, demand birthday money, and debt collection by drawing cards from the deal pile. Action cards are played into the center only on players’ turns; payment demands can be paid from other players’ banks, their properties, or cancelled by a “just say no card.” The first player to collect three complete card sets of different colors wins the game.
Annotations from the FDL Library Catalog
– Kris, Youth Services Specialist
FDL Reads: We
We: A Novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Reviewed by: Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist
Genre: Dystopian Science Fiction
Suggested Age: Adult
What is the book about? Hundreds of years into the future, after war and turmoil, humans live regimented lives “safe” from the outside world surrounded by a green glass wall. People don’t have names, they have numerical designations. D503 is the lead builder of an ambitious project to send a flying craft, the Integral, to other worlds to spread the peace and happiness of this society where individual freedom is quashed and imagination is threat. D503 is writing a log to be included in the items sent on the Integral. Initially, he extols the magnificence of his life, but after an encounter with a mysterious woman, D503 descends into a dizzying world of self-doubt, paranoia, and frenetic rationalizations…all because she awakened his imagination. Is this a turning point for him? Will he find true happiness by rejecting all that he has ever known and embracing individual freedom?
My Review: This book was written in 1920 by a Russian author who didn’t live to see his work published in his native language, which didn’t happen until 1988. I listened to the audiobook of a new translation of this book, with a forward by Margaret Atwood and contributions from George Orwell and Ursula K. Le Guin. I liked the format of a log being written by the main character. It was clear that D503 was coming unhinged after being confronted with ideas that went against how he was taught to think. This is a cautionary tale about the dangers of suppressed individuality and a totalitarian society. It was an intriguing read that deserves a wider audience. George Orwell wrote his well-known dystopian novel 1984 after reading a French translation of We in the 1940s. His review of this book from 1946, included after the story, compares it to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World from 1932.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Provocative, Unsettling, Cautionary
Give This a Try if You Like…1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Rating: 5/5
FDL Reads: Unmasked
Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes
Reviewed by: Beth Weimer, Communications Specialist
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Suggested Age: Adults
What is the Book About?: Retired criminalist investigator Paul Holes recounts his remarkable career solving cases and catching criminals in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay area in this true crime memoir. Holes started out as a forensic toxicologist and worked his way up through the next 27 years, specializing in cold cases and serial predators. Some of his notable cases include Laci Peterson, Jaycee Dugard, and Philip Joseph Hughes, but he dedicated just as much effort to the unnamed or overlooked victims. Holes is most famous for ingeniously using genetic genealogy to identify Joseph DeAngelo as the brutal Golden State Killer 2018, and this story reveals the science and the obsession behind the relentless pursuit that began when he opened a forgotten East Area Rapist file on his first day as a deputy.
My Review: If you’re interested in true crime, you’re probably aware of Paul Holes because of the GSK case, his podcast, or his investigative shows on Oxygen. Aside from his Contra Costa career and media presence, Holes’ idea to utilize DNA and genealogy technology to solve cold cases has truly revolutionized the investigative field, and will continue to have an evolving impact. As a bit of a fan and someone already familiar with his private, straight-shooting tendencies, I was surprised at how much personal info and case details he includes in the book. I assume everyone who regularly encounters violence through their work takes on trauma, but I was staggered by how just deeply that trauma has impacted him (maybe because he conducts himself so professionally and ethically). He’s especially frank about how his obsessiveness and ability to detach emotionally have ruined his relationships with his family, but those qualities – and his devotion the science and empathetic connection to victims and their families – make him so singularly effective at solving these cold cases. It’s heartbreaking how much he’s sacrificed, and yet he still can’t stop, continuing to work as investigator and consultant to help victim’s families find closure. (I also appreciated the chapter about his relationship with Michelle McNamara, who tragically died before they could catch GSK together.)
Three Words That Describe This Book: Driven, Unflinching, Fascinating
Give This a Try if You Like… I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara, Chase Darkness with Me by Billy Jensen, Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
Rating: 4/5
#FDL: Book-to-Screen Adaptations
Read these books now before you see the movie or series!
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life’s lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens. – Now in Theaters
Fire and Blood (HBO’s House of the Dragon)
Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.
What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why did it become so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What is the origin of Daenerys’s three dragon eggs? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring more than eighty all-new black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley. Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed. – Release date: August 21, 2022 on HBO
The Sandman is a comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Jill Thompson, Shawn McManus, Marc Hempel and Michael Zulli and more, with covers by Dave McKean. Beginning with issue #47, it was placed under the imprint Vertigo. It chronicles the adventures of Dream (of the Endless), who rules over the world of dreams. – Release date: August 5, 2022 on Netflix
The Silmarillion (Rings of Power series)
The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part. The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor. – Release date: September 2, 2022 on Amazon Prime
-Annotations from the publishers
Posted by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
#FDL: Mystery, Suspense, & the Paranormal – July Giveaway
Are you craving some thrills and chills? These titles are sure to deliver.
6:20 Man by David Baldacci
Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance.
Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.
Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building—presumably a suicide, prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the Army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm.
This treacherous role will take Travis from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic halls of power…where something rotten lurks. And apart from this high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own agenda, and Devine is the bullseye.
Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman
Ever since their on-again, off-again college romance, Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with charismatic but reckless Silas, who’s been chasing the next big high since graduation. When he texts her to spring him out of rehab, she knows enough is enough. She’s ready to start a career, make new friends, and meet a great guy—even if that means cutting Silas off. But when Silas turns up dead from an overdose, Erin’s world falls apart.
When Erin learns that Silas discovered a drug that allowed him to see the dead, she doesn’t believe it’s real but agrees to a pill-popping “séance” to ease her guilt and pain. When she steps back into the real world, she starts to see ghosts from her Southern hometown’s bloody and brutal past everywhere. Are the effects pharmacological or something more sinister? And will Erin be able to shut the Pandora’s box of horrors she’s opened?
With propulsive momentum, bone-chilling scares, and dark meditations on the weight of history, this Southern horror will make you think twice about opening doors to the unknown.
Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner
Helen’s idyllic life—handsome architect husband, gorgeous Victorian house, and cherished baby on the way (after years of trying)—begins to change the day she attends her first prenatal class and meets Rachel, an unpredictable single mother-to-be. Rachel doesn’t seem very maternal: she smokes, drinks, and professes little interest in parenthood. Still, Helen is drawn to her. Maybe Rachel just needs a friend. And to be honest, Helen’s a bit lonely herself. At least Rachel is fun to be with. She makes Helen laugh, invites her confidences, and distracts her from her fears.
But her increasingly erratic behavior is unsettling. And Helen’s not the only one who’s noticed. Her friends and family begin to suspect that her strange new friend may be linked to their shared history in unexpected ways. When Rachel threatens to expose a past crime that could destroy all of their lives, it becomes clear that there are more than a few secrets laying beneath the broad-leaved trees and warm lamplight of Greenwich Park.
-Annotations from the publishers
–Post by Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist
Giveaway
Enter your name here for a chance to win ARCs of the books mentioned in this post.
One entry per person. Drawing to be held approximately 7 days after this post.
ARCs are “advanced reading copies.” These are free copies of a new books given by a publisher to librarians and other reviewers before the book is printed for mass distribution.
#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and East Peoria.
FDL Reads: Garlic and the Vampire
Garlic and the Vampire by Bree Paulsen
Reviewed By: Alice Mitchell, Youth Services Manager
Genre: Fantasy (graphic novel)
Suggested Age: Kids (Age 8-13)
What is This Book About? Garlic spends her days working in the garden with the other vegetable folk, where her main worry is oversleeping on market days and disappointing Witch Agnes. When Potato notices smoke coming from the eerie, abandoned castle across the valley, Witch Agnes tells them all a story of an old vampire who used to live there a hundred years ago. Panicking, the vegetable folk agree that Garlic is the obvious choice to confront the vampire and save them. Kind and anxious Garlic strongly disagrees, but with some vampire hunting basics from Witch Agnes, Garlic sets off on a mission to destroy the vampire and save their valley.
My Review: Garlic is an admirable character – despite her worry at possibly becoming the vampire’s victim, Garlic still faces him head-on. Witch Agnes is a motherly figure who encourages Garlic to develop her own talents, and lets Garlic set her own boundaries. Garlic solves their vampire problem by finding her own strength and creative solutions, demonstrating that she was the perfect person to head to the castle. The gentle illustrations of thriving gardens and bright forests evoke a sense of old-world charm. Paired with exclamations of “Cheese ‘n’ chives!” and “Oh grapes,” it is clear that this book is nowhere close to horror, and is instead about making new friends.
Three Words that Describe this Book: courage, kindness, imagination
Give This A Try if You Like… The Tea Dragon Society by K. O’Neill, The Sprite and the Gardener by Rii Abrego, Nightlights by Lorena Alvarez, Tidesong by Wendy Xu
Rating: 5/5